Metal-bending machine.



No. 709,753. Patented Sept. 23., 1902., I F. DITCHFIELD.

METAL B ENDING MACHINE. {Application filed July 1, 1902.)

(No Model.)

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Patented Sept. 23,1902.

F. DITCHFIELD. METAL B ENDING MACHINE.

(Application filed July 1, 1902.)

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(.No Model.)

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UNITED STATES ATENT FFICE.

FRANK DITOHFIELD, OF AVALON, PENNSYLVANIA, ASSIGNOR TO PRESSED STEEL OAR COMPANY, OF PITTSBURG, PENNSYLVANIA, A CORPORATION OF NEYV JERSEY.

METAL BENDING MACHINE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 709,753, dated September 23, 1902.

Application filed July 1,1902. Serial No. 113,961. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, FRANK DITCHFIELD, a subject of the King of Great Britain, residing at Avalon, in the county of Allegheny and State of Pennsylvania, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement in Metal- BendingMachines, (Case A,) of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description.

The objectof this invention is to provide an apparatus for bending heavy plates of metal, such steel, into useful shapes, and I have illustrated the invention as applicable to forming long flanged shapes, such as carsills.

Heretofore car-sills of steel plate have been bent to shape by means of die-presses; but great care has to be taken by reason of the fact that the operation is very severe on the metal, since the formation of the flanges is commenced at the root and the width of the flange acts as a resistance during formation, because it has to be jammed into and between the dies. In the man ufacture of pressed shapes by means of dies separate dies must be used for each size of work, and in any case the length of the work is limited to the size of the press-table and is restricted.

In the present invention the bending of the flanges begins at the edges of the plate.

0 Moreover, one machine can by changes of formers be used to make a variety of sizes, and finally the length of work is unlimited.

In carrying out my invention 1 use a former of substantially thecontour of the work 3'; and upon which the work is held and combine it with rolls which turn and flange the edges as the Work progresses through the machine, all as I will proceed now more particularly to set forth and finally claim.

0 In the accompanying drawings, illustrating my invention, in the several figures of which like parts are similarly designated, Figure 1 is a front elevation with the former in cross-section. Fig. 2 is a top plan view.

Fig. 3 is a longitudinal cross-section.

A frame 1 is erected stationarily upon asuitable base and is supplied with a roller 2 or any number of similar rollers mounted in bearings 3. The roller supports the former 4, and any suitable means (not shown) may be' used for moving the former longitudinally upon the roller 2. The blank 5 is laid upon the former and held in contact therewith by a holddown roll 6, mounted in the end of the stem or pluuger7of a vertical hydraulic cyliuder S or other power appliance. Edge turning rolls 9 in pairs are arranged upon op posite faces of the frame 1 and operated by hydraulic cylinders or other power apparatus 10, and these rolls are set at an oblique angle to the former and adjacent its upper corners. Between the rolls 9 and on opposite sides of the frame are arranged the Hanging-rolls 11, whose axes are parallel to the sides of the former, and these flangi-ng-rolls are actuated by hydraulic cylinders 12 or other appropriate power appliances. I

The rolls 9 and 11 may be mounted in or upon the stems 0r plungers of their respective power appliances, as in the case of the roll G, and are herein so shown, and in every case the preferred construction, as shown, is to mount the power appliances for these several rolls upon the frame 1.

A flat blank having been laid upon the former, with its edges projecting over the corners of the former a distance equal to the width of flanges desired upon opposite edges, the former is drawn toward the edge-turning rolls 9, which nip the edges of the blank and bend them into their own planes, and these bent. edges are next nipped by the flangingrolls and turned and flattened out, as shown in Fig. l, to complete the flanging.

By this apparatus any size, length, and contour or profile of flanged shapes, such as carsills, may be easily, economically, and efficiently made with little or no liability of straining or crackingthe metal.

Since the machine is alike in front and rear, the work may be fed from, either point.

The invention is not limited to the details of construction and arrangement of parts, and in another case of even date herewith I have shown one example of a variation permissible Within the principle of the invention and wherein the former is stationary and the frame carrying the rolls is movable,

the alternative constructions being herein of the frame, flanging-rolls arranged upon opbroadly claimed and that one with the movposite sides of the frame and between the able former being herein specifically claimed, edge turning rolls, and a movable former While the specific claim for the machine havmounted upon the frame between said rolls. I5 r ing the stationary former and the traveling In testimony whereof I have hereunto set frame is reserved for the concurrent case. I my hand this 27th day of June, A. D. 1902.

What I claim FRANK DITCHFIELD.

A metal-bending machine, comprising es- I sentiallyastationary frame, apoWer-actuated Witnesses: 1o holddown-roli, power-actuated edge-turning A. H. .MERCER,

rolls arranged in pairs upon opposite faces RICHARD T. GRIFFITHS. 

